This Morning, Hundreds of Naked Shoppers Took Desigual by Storm

Published September 23, 2010•Updated on September 24, 2010 at 11:21 am

This morning, Barcelona label Desigual hosted a to-the-public clothing giveaway to the first 100 shoppers that showed up naked to its Soho outpost in New York City.

Security detail clad in black suits and Walkie talkies stood in naked stark contrast to a crowd stripped down to their underpants.

The line, which officially opened at 7 AM, was broken into two sections. The first 100 there received 10 AM shopping time to pick out a free head-to-toe outfit. The second 100 were allowed inside afterward with a 50 percent off voucher.

The scene skewed towards young, unabashed co-eds who'd spread the word and R.S.V.P. via Facebook -- a nightie-wearing grad student here, a gaggle of high school class-skippers there -- with a few amusing, impromptu exceptions. (At one point, a 50-something cleaning woman exiting a deli after morning coffee exclaimed "I have nowhere to be. Let's get naked!" to wild applause.)

"I think maybe it's because you feel more free, you know?" said USA marketing manager Manuel Martinez when we solicited his take on why bare-all policy seemed to genuinely bring people together. "You can feel more connected to everybody when you don't wear clothes."